The Canadian Press
OTTAWA—Chris Neil is used to delivering a knockout punch but last night, the New Jersey Devils proved to be the heavyweights.
The Devils topped the Senators 5-4 in a shootout—ruining what otherwise was a perfect night for Neil, who was playing his 900th career game with Ottawa.
Lee Stempniak scored twice, including the shootout winner, as New Jersey won its third-straight game.
Travis Zajac, Jordin Tootoo, and Adam Henrique supplied the rest of the offence for the Devils (3-3-1).
Cory Schneider made 35 saves for the win.
“We’re a team that’s got to fight for every inch and there’s not very high expectations for us,” noted Stempniak.
“But in the room, we believe we’re capable of a lot more than what people expect from us,” he stressed.
“I think that’s our mentality is just go out and playing until the final buzzer, and that came through tonight.”
Neil, Mike Hoffman, Zack Smith, and Mika Zibanejad scored for the Senators (3-2-2), who now have lost three-straight.
Andrew Hammond turned away 28 shots in his season debut.
“Ultimately I thought we played really well for a lot of portions of the game and I feel like my game kind of reflected that,” said Hammond.
“I thought there were parts of the game where I played really well, and then at the end of the day we let them get four goals—and you’re not going to win too many games allowing that,” he reasoned.
Trailing 4-2 in the third period, New Jersey scored twice late to tie the game.
Henrique cut the lead to one as he buried a Mike Cammalleri rebound at 14:10.
Stempniak then completed the comeback when he beat Hammond with 31.4 seconds left in regulation time.
“We handed them the third goal,” said Senators’ coach Dave Cameron.
“You can’t give teams a freebie and they got it.”
Neil got his first of the season to make it 4-2 in front of 16,578 spectators at Canadian Tire Centre.
He added an assist while also fighting Tootoo to finish the night with a Gordie Howe hat trick.
“It’s disappointing not getting the two points out of that,” said Neil.
“We fought and clawed our way back into the game after two power-play goals, and thought we did a good job for the most part of shutting them down,” he noted.
Elsewhere in the NHL, Washington edged Vancouver 3-2, Minnesota nipped Columbus 3-2, Chicago shaded Florida 3-2, and the N.Y. Rangers beat Arizona 4-1.
Dallas downed Pittsburgh 4-1, Nashville dumped Anaheim 5-1, and L.A. upended San Jose 4-1.
